Two years ago, this was a fight that everyone wanted to see. Both men had cleaned out their respective divisions, and stood head and shoulders above everyone else as the best fighters in the sport. There was nothing left for them to do but face each other, and there was genuine debate about who would come out ahead, St-Pierre or Silva.

In the time since then, the landscape has changed.

Jon Jones has emerged to make the “best in the business” debate a three-horse race, and new contenders have established themselves in both the middleweight and welterweight divisions. We’ve also had a chance to put these two to the eye test, as Silva and St-Pierre have headlined consecutive events, and the results have changed the way we look at the match-up.

There is far less debate now about who would come out on top. While St-Pierre looked outstanding in coming back from knee surgery and an 18-month layoff to best Carlos Condit on Saturday at UFC 154, Silva’s devastation of Stephan Bonnar moving up in weight at the previous event convinced a lot of people that the middleweight champion would best his welterweight counterpart should they ever share the cage.

Jones appears to be better suited to challenge Silva, and that fight – not Silva/St-Pierre – is the one the MMA community is truly clamouring for, even though it’s currently not on the table. Since we’ve already seen Silva go up in weight and have success, it’s hard to envision him struggling against a smaller competitor.

But that’s only how we, the hardcore set, sees the fight, and in the grand scheme of things, we’re only account for a small portion of the potential audience for this fight.

And that’s the key to all this.

The proposed super-fight showdown between Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva? Nothing to do with the diehard, watch every event, know every fighter set. This one is for John Q. Public, his wife Jane, and their neighbors, the Smiths who live on their right, and the Davis’ who live two doors down on the left.

These are arguably the two most recognizable names in mixed martial arts. They are the two most dominant champions in UFC history, and the two fighters who have been the brightest stars in the sport over the last three or four years.

Of all the fighters in the sport, these two are the two the general public are most likely to be able to name and/or identify. Stand on a street corner and ask people to name three UFC fighters, and Silva and St-Pierre will be at the top the charts.

This is a fight for people who last tuned in when St-Pierre battled BJ Penn or the organization celebrated their “100th” pay-per-view event with Brock Lesnar as the main event attraction. It’s a fight for people who will recognize the names St-Pierre and Silva, and not have to ask 20 questions about the other fighter on the marquee.

A super-fight between Silva and St-Pierre will garner more mainstream media attention than any bout in UFC history. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime possibility pitting two of the greatest the sport has ever seen against one another, and that’s the kind of bout that has the potential to captivate even those who don’t normally pay attention to the UFC.

It’s Mayweather versus Pacquiao without the back-and-forth bickering about who gets what share of the purse and whether or not they’re going to do Olympic-style drug testing. It’s also probably going to happen too, unlike the boxing’s biggest bout.

A fight like this has Trojan Horse potential.

After it’s announced and the buzz starts to build, more and more people who normally wouldn’t be interested start to get curious. This isn’t two guys people have never heard of before sharing the cage; it’s two of the top fighters in the history of the sport agreeing to battle for the distinction of being “The Greatest of All-Time.” Regular fan or not, that’s the kind of match-up that captivates a much wider audience than Johnson versus Dodson for the flyweight title on FOX.

Given a five-month lead-in with the full court media press, including another edition of Primetime, this fight does massive numbers on pay-per-view and sells out whatever cavernous venue they choose to us.

This is the type of mega-fight that starts with three or four people in the office talking about it expectantly. A couple more people join in on the conversation, and they decide to get together to watch the fight, either at home or a local watering hole. By the time the fight rolls around, there’s a full-fledged viewing party planned.

Even though they’re all there to watch Silva and St-Pierre slug it out in the cage, there are four other fights on the main card to watch, and one or two of those clashes might catch their attention. So too does St-Pierre and Silva, and coming away from the event, each man’s next title defence gets circled on the calendar.

And then hey, look, there are fights on FX this weekend, and fights on FOX two weeks later. Plus, that guy who fought early on the St-Pierre/Silva card and was fun to watch is fighting a couple weeks after that, so maybe I’ll check that out too.

It’s not a stretch to think that this fight could bring numerous new fans to the sport; it’s that big of a match-up and will generate enough buzz that casuals and first-time curious observers will decide to take a look.

The hardcore segment is going to watch no matter what, but these last two years have shown that the sport can’t grow on the strength of the hardcore audience alone. It takes something bigger, and for the casual audience, it doesn’t get any bigger than this.

* * * * * * * *

Keep up with the latest from Keyboard Kimura by joining the Facebook page.

If you’re on Twitter, be sure to follow me (@spencerkyte) for even more MMA talk… and all kinds of randomness too.

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the “X” in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.